Selecting a community is a crucial process for the Units’s adequate insertion. The process must begin with a National Analysis, which will facilitate the identification of the areas where LINCOS would have a greater impact.

Next, an ethnographic diagnosis becomes necessary. The purpose of this preliminary evaluation is to qualitatively show the potentialities of the community members, and their ability to absorb and appropriate the technologies. This analysis helps select the most adequate technologies from a menu of more than 60 alternatives.

This study also helps to characterize the population, to identify the different organizations and powers that manage the relationships between the individuals and the families. Additionally, the analysis provides useful information about the person or persons who would be in charge of the project’s operation and management positions. It will identify the probable sites where a Unit could be installed; and finally, it will define a base situation to continuously monitor and evaluate the impact obtained with each technology.

In short, after this step the following would have been achieved:

• Identifying a community group in charge of the project.
• Identifying an adequate location to install the project.
• Identifying the human resources that could be trained to start operations.
• Identifying the technical conditions and the project’s feasibility.
• Identifying the local conditions for power supply and for the local telecommunications network.